This new application is submitted to initiate a Clinical Research Education for Drug Abuse Professionals (CREDAP) training program at Baylor College of Medicine, based on the successful CREDAP that was previously sited at UCLA. The overarching goal is to provide a coordinated, sustainable infrastructure of dedicated education and training that will produce independent healthcare professionals capable of conducting and disseminating clinical research pertaining to drug dependence and its treatment. This extensively revised application features an expansion of available mentors and research opportunities to include Pre-Clinical Human Pharmacology and Medications Testing (Drs. Newton, De La Garza), Brain Imaging and Cognitive Neuroscience (Drs. Moeller, Lane, and Steinberg), Neurogenetics (Dr. Nielson), Neurochemical Correlates of Addiction (Dr. Little) and Clinical Trials Research (Dr. Kosten). In addition, the program includes more extensive mechanisms of ensuring accountability of both faculty and trainees with the goal of consistently producing trainees that are able to successfully compete for funding.
The specific aims of the program are: 1. to provide trainees with a comprehensive understanding of drug abuse research and clinical practice, entailing interdisciplinary clinical research education and training lasting two years at post-doctoral level under the guidance of preceptors. 2. To educate trainees to have full competence in using experimental techniques appropriate for the investigation of drug abuse, emphasizing advanced technologies, procedural reliability, and validity. 3. To encourage trainees to investigate a defined clinical research issue in drug abuse, with a focus on clinical trials research, starting them on a course of clinical research that will continue beyond the 2-year program. 4. To prepare trainees to become productive clinical researchers by teaching them to prepare manuscripts reporting research results that merit publication in peer-reviewed, high-quality biomedical journals, to write and submit grant applications to the NIH, and to become part of national research communities by attending meetings, seminars, and symposia where they may present research, gain new knowledge, and forge new collaborations. 5. To increase diversity in the training program through identifying and soliciting applications from promising candidates from underrepresented populations, including racial/ethnic groups and women. 6. To further develop and refine the program through formal evaluation efforts that provide input on areas that can be improved.

Public Health Relevance

This revised application is submitted for continuation of the Clinical Research Education for Drug Abuse Professionals (CREDAP) training program. The overarching goal is to provide a coordinated, sustainable infrastructure of dedicated education and training that will produce independent healthcare professionals capable of conducting and disseminating clinical research pertaining to drug dependence and its treatment.